'My secret spot is now not'

H&M's opening draws throngs, and a second's on the way

September 21, 2003|By Wendy Navratil, Tribune staff reporter.

Little more than 20 minutes inside the front door of the new H&M store at 840 N. Michigan Ave., Christopher Dovalina had amassed two sweaters, a coat, a pair of pants, a hat, a scarf, a wrist band and ring.

"The final total is going to be $200 or $225"--less than the Comme des Garcons shirt on his back at the preopening party for the 35,000-square-foot, three-floor women's/men's/children's emporium. "You buy one piece from a couturier and the rest from here," said Dovalina, chief concierge at W Hotels who once worked at a Versace boutique. "I think it's going to be one of the most successful stores on the avenue."

Dovalina helped set a pace that didn't stop even when about 250 protesters--who say H&M is resisting workers' efforts to form a union--assembled opposite the line of fans that snaked around the block on opening day Sept. 12.

Shoppers were engrossed in their own mission at this "Ikea of clothing," as Dovalina described it. Sweden-based H&M is building up to 65 U.S. stores by the end of the year, on the strength of a trendy assortment that includes $1.50 earrings, $4.50 children's skirts, $14 women's satin halter tops, $15 handbags and $9 men's shirts.

"And they have my size. You would think with the European styles, they wouldn't have a size 14 or 16," said Ellie Cintron, who was one of the first in line at 10 a.m. on opening day (with a friend who didn't give her name because she took the day off from work). Cintron emerged with $300 worth of merchandise for herself and her husband.

Familiar with H&M from trips to New York and Europe, the fashion cognoscenti bittersweetly greeted the store's entry onto the Magnificent Mile. Another H&M will open at noon Friday in Woodfield mall.

"My secret spot is now not," said Cueatrice Scott, a sales associate at Barneys New York in Chicago who would steal into H&M when in Manhattan. "It's always, always crazy there, and it will be the same here. People will learn to try things on while they're waiting in line."

Seconds later at the preopening party, shoppers showed they already had.

About those protesters

Led by the New York-based Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, about 250 protesters turned out for H&M's opening day in Chicago.

They say H&M is resisting workers' efforts to form a union for higher wages and safer conditions at a New Jersey distribution site and at sewing centers in Indonesia and Thailand.

"The workers who are making store openings possible are being exploited," said Scott Zdrazil, a senior researcher for Unite.

Carmen Durand, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who works at the New Jersey distribution center, said union supporters face retaliation. "They have to work harder," she said through an interpreter. (For details of some complaints, see www.behindthelabel.org.)

H&M spokeswoman Karen Belva, who attended the Chicago opening, said the workers are "not at all discouraged" from forming a union.

"We leave it up to the employees," she said. "They [the demonstrators] have every right to be here."